Mike's Bill S. 425 - Letter to Senator Jackson

A.xgust 7, 1974 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE s 14597
Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President, MHD
electric power generation, which was ftrst
developed in the United states, promises
operating e'Hiciency 50 percetit better-
1m to 40 percent-than the most ad­vanced
steam turbine plants. and a
greater ihcrease-60 to 32 percent--over
that of nuclear plants. It will burn coal,
our most abtmdant domestic fuel re­source.
It will operate with greatly re­tfuced
stack emissions, well within the
SPecified llmlts for pollution control. And
lt will reQuire much less, or no, cooling
water, thus greatly "decreasing or elim­l.
nating thermal pollution.
MHD 1s currently .under development
in other coantrieM besldee the United
~. pa.rticul.a.rl.y the Soviet Unicm,
which has built and operates a.n experi­mental
25 MW MHD powerp.la.nt. W.e a.re
!e.l.li.ng behind. If MHO is to play .iU rc»e
.in aolwing tlle Na.tian'.s energy crisis by
~,-and if the United state~; is to lllAin­tain
its technological le&decship in the
Jield and establish ltsel! u a prlncW&l
world supplier of l4HD liY8tem.i, a.n .ag­_
iXessive national MliD Eievelopment lH"D­.
gz:a.m is needed.
Since 1968, Senator METCALF and I
have been urgi-ng a national program to
-develop MHD power generation. I believe
<that the distinguished manager ot the
hill, chairman of the Appropriations SuB­committee
on Interior and Related Af­fairs,
will attest that Senator METCI\LF
and I have been the principal proponents
for funding MHD in the Interior Depart­ment's
Office of Coal Research's budget
every year, including fl.10cal year 1970
when the first funds were provided.
On August 9, 1988, Mr. <Jordell Moore,
Assistant Secretary of the Interior, wrolle
me-
We are convinced t)lr.t a direct energy
conversion system, such as MHD, holds con­ll!
derable promise tor the development et
the n •:st energy resources of the Northern
Great j:'lalna.
On August 22, 1968, I wrote to the Pres­ident
urging him to Include $10 million
in the fiscal 1970 budget request to be
utnized during a 4-year period for con­struction
of a pilot plant to be 1n opera­tion
by 1975. I also asked that he con­sider
Montana as the most logical site
for such a plant.
On September 20, 1968, Senator MET­CALF
and I wrote to the Secretary of the
Interior Stewa-rt UdAll urging him to give
serious consideration to the construction
of an MHD pilot project near the vast
coal fiields in Montana. Sec11etary Udall
responded and stuted-r
a.m personally sold on the MHD research
project and I agree wlth you that It would
me.ke sense to have euch a project be.sed 1n
Montana.. Further, the severr.l houra i hr.ve
spent lnqutrlnc Into this subject have con­vinced
me that our country must underta.ke
r. major MH.D nlM!&rch project within the
next few yer.rs.
Note, this was September 1868.
On May 8, 1969, James R. Smith, As­sistant
Secretary o! tae Inter.ior, in­f&
nned me that fiscal constraints under
the fiscal yea,.r 1970 budget were not con­due.!
ve to the undertaking of a new WID
pilot plant.
On May 23, 1969, I called the attention
of the Senate to a.n article by Mr. Gene
Smith entiUed, "The United States
Trails Soviet in Exotic PGwer." I painted
QUt that it was a sad commenta.J:y on
t.he,2.ttent.ion this Nation is giving to ad- -
vanced power generator techniqw.es es­pec1a.
lly since it was an American acien­tist
who developed the Nation's first
MHD generator 10 years before. Senator
METCALF and I again urged an immec:li­ate
initiation of plans for a pilot plant
in Montana to bring low-cost power to
O\lr growing population and to industry
without the side etfects of air and water
pollution. ·
On November 6, 1969, Senator METCALF
and I wrote to Secretary of the Interior
Hickel again asking that funds be re­quested
to get underway with an MHD
research program. Secretary Hickel re­.
.Plied on December 18, 1969, stating-we
are as enthusiastic as you are .about
this _program and we, too, &re aware or Its
great promise !or ellm1ne.tlng thermal po1-
1utlon.
But he also painted out that no deci­sion
had been reached concerning MHD
and the Office of Coal Research budget.
On April 1., 197{1, I appeared before the
Subcommittee on lnterior Appropria­tions
again asking for funds for this im­portant
project. Only $400,000 was in­cluded
in the bwtg,et that year foc MHD,
a.nd this oemm.lttee increased that
amount by $200,000 for a total of $600,­'{
100 in fiscal year 1971. This WM the fir&t
.s.ignifl.cant step in providing impetus to
bhis Important research.
On July 22, 197t, I asked the distin­guished
manager of the bill whether It
was the intent of this committee that the
Department should initiate research in
the immediate future on MHD even in
advance of a final report o! an electric
Mike Mansfield Papers, Series 21, Box 50, Folder 15, Mansfield Library, University of Montana
s 14508 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE August 7, 1974
research council task force. He assured
me that was the intent.
Nothing significant was achieved by
the Office of Coal Research in this area,
and, again, on May 9, 1973, after the on­set
of the worldwide energy crisis, I ap­peared
before this committee asking that
the request of the administration for $3
million for MHD research be increased
to $8 million. I pointed out that MHD
technology had not gone along as far as
I had hoped due to the inadequate in­terest
and support of the administra­tion.
Again, in 1974, I requested considera­tion
for an appropriation of $2.5 million
in fiscal year 1975 to further develop
MHD techniques and applications within
the State of Montana. This resulted in
the following language being adopted in
the report supporting Public Law 93-322,
the energy research and development ap­propriations
bill:
The net decrease below the amount pro­posed
by the House Inc! udes an addition o!
$5,000,000 !or MHD (magnetohydrodynam­!
cs) to Initiate design and planning work
on an engineering test !acUity and to pro­vide
!or additional research on MHD tech­niques
and applications at the Montana
College o! Mineral Science and Technology
and other units o! the Montana University
System .•.
The Office of Coal Research has spent
only a fraction of the monies appropri­ated
and has consistently ignored the
intent of the Congress that MHD devel·
opment should be accelerated. Indeed,
not only has OCR failed to properly use
the general funds provided for this pur­pose,
but has to date even refused to use
any of the funds specifically designated
at the initiation of the distinguished·
Chairman of the Appropriations Com­mittee,
Senator McCLELLAN, for use at
the University of Tennessee.
Recently, the members of the Appro­priations
Committee discussed the need
for accelerating MHD research and de­velopment
and the Immediate beginning
of the design and planning for an MHD
engineering test facility as provided in
the Special Energy Appropriations Act
referred to above. That legislation, as
you will recall, specifies that MHD re­search
and development will be done at
the Montana College of Mineral Science
and Technology at Butte, in cooperation
with the Montana University system and
in collaboration with existing MHD ex­pertise
in the private sector.
In past years, the MHD appropriations
amendments which Senator METCALF
and I authored were general in nature.
Given the urgency of the current energy
crisis and the attitude of OCR, I believe
It Is now incumbent upon the Congress
to strengthen MHD research and devel­opment
activities and to leave no doubt
in the. minds of the Secretary of the
Interior and the Director of the Office
of Coal Research, that Congress does not
intend to be ignored and that an accel­erated
program will be initiated so as to
make MHD commercially available in
the 1985-1990 period.
· The Office of Coal Research is leaning
heavily on a so-called national plan
which envisions a demonstration of en­gineering
feasibility of MHD by 1984
with a commercial application near the of Tennessee with the moneys appropri-year
2000. ated for that institution.
Given the facts available and the time MHD -is a technology particularly
already wasted, I believe that this time suited to the western coal States and it
schedule is much too conservative. For is appropriate that a significant portion
example, the OCR plan states that-- of the research and development effort
Past research and development efforts have should take place there. The Montana
not disclosed any fundamental technical bar- College of 1'4ine'ral Science and Tech­rlers
requiring major scientific discoveries or nology Is one of the leading schools in
break-throughs. its field in the country and the Montana
Recently, John C. Sawhill, the Federal State University at Bozeman has out­Energy
Administrator, reported in con- standing faculty and facilities. The two
nection with the signing of the U.S./ schools are in the process of completing
U.S.S.R. Energy Cooperation Agreement a cooperative effort with the AVCO
In Moscow by Presidents Nixon and Pod- Everett Research Laboratory. AVCO de­gorny,
that the Soviet Union has planned veloped the first operating generator, has
a 1,000 megawatt electric powerplant us- designed and built every large MHD gen­ing
an MHD generator. erator that has operated in the United
Various distinguished scientists and States and Is currently involved in de­engineers,
representing universities and signing the channel for the Soviet
industry, have repeatedly testified before Union's 25 megawatt MHD plant. The
the Appropriations Subcommittee on the laboratory Is internationally recognized
Interior and Related Affairs that the as the leader In the field of MHD.
technology is on hand to design and By placing the engineering test facility
build the large scale MHD generator. in Montana and combining the MHD
Further, that given the w11l to do so, expertise at AVCO with the resow·ces
MHD can be commercially available be- and capab111t1es at Montana Tech and
fore 1990. Incidentally, In bls statement, the Montana University, system we will
Mr. Sawhill said that- have created a most powerful national
The United States can learn a great deal team to conduct MHD development.
about magnetohydrodynam!cs from the So- This brings me to the purpose of my
vlets and could Improve u .s. efficiency 1n amendment included 1n the bill. Given
tha.t area. the history of OCR's attitude, we cannot:
That this statement was made Is a sad reasonably expect It to respond to tl~
commentary since the first successful Will of the Congress. I believe that th.i;;
MHD generator was developed in the amendment will demonstrate with tlle
United States and most of the theoretical force of la.w that 1t Is national poliCY
work has been done here. that MHD Is to be commercialized in the
Given this background, I am convinced 1980's unless some now unforeseen, fun­that
the United States can recapture 1ts damental, technical barrier should arise.
lead in this new technology and make The language will also demonstrate
MHD commercially available well in ad- that the Congress has the will to provide
vance of the OCR timetable. To do so re- OCR with both the direction and the
quires determination, and a willingness funds necessary to expand MHD research
to spend the money to accomplish this and development and to get on lmme­goal.
dlately with the engineering test fac111ty
Since Public Law 93- 322, the Energy in Montana.
Research and Development Approprla- Mr. BIBLE. Mr. President, I commend
tions Act, was signed, my office has been the Senator from Montana, our most
informed by the Director of the Office of distinguished. and lovable and expert
Coal Research that that agency 1s un- majority leader.
able to comply with the language out- The speec):l he has just made sounds
lined in the report. Dr. William Gouse, familiar to me. I have heard it many
has indicated that he needs specific leg- times on the fioor of the Senate. We have
lslatlve authority to proceed with an ex- tried to accommodate ourselves to his
perlmental test facility 1n Montana as wishes 1n tihis matter, and in this par­directed
and approplrated for by the tlcular bill I hope we are successful.
Congress. He and his advisers take the In order to get the power of his office
position that his office does not have and his feeling behind this matter, I am
grant authority, which is true, and must going to suggest that he be added as a
pursue a lengthy and cumbersome con- conferee on this bill. I am sure that his
tractual and site selection procedure un- position will prevail. I think he is right.
less specifically directed otherwise. I know his position will prevail in the
In my view of the history of this im- Senate. I would like to have the added
portant project, I feel It Is Incumbent weight of his prestige, of his office, and
upon the Congress to direct the execu- of his great State behind us when we go
tlve branch, specifically the Office of to conference, which I hope will be some­Coal
Research, under the Department of time next wP.ek.
the Interior, to move aggressively In this ~
field and to carry out the intent of Pub-lic
Law 93- 322.
With respect to establishing the engi­neering
test facility, let me say that I am
convinced that all the resources of the
Nation should be brought to bear on this
technology. I support the work going on
in Tennessee, Massachusetts, California,
Ohio, and elsewhere, and I believe it
should be expanded. Hopefully, OCR will
cease its delay in funding the University
Mike Mansfield Papers, Series 21, Box 50, Folder 15, Mansfield Library, University of Montana

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Transcript

A.xgust 7, 1974 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE s 14597
Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President, MHD
electric power generation, which was ftrst
developed in the United states, promises
operating e'Hiciency 50 percetit better-
1m to 40 percent-than the most ad­vanced
steam turbine plants. and a
greater ihcrease-60 to 32 percent--over
that of nuclear plants. It will burn coal,
our most abtmdant domestic fuel re­source.
It will operate with greatly re­tfuced
stack emissions, well within the
SPecified llmlts for pollution control. And
lt will reQuire much less, or no, cooling
water, thus greatly "decreasing or elim­l.
nating thermal pollution.
MHD 1s currently .under development
in other coantrieM besldee the United
~. pa.rticul.a.rl.y the Soviet Unicm,
which has built and operates a.n experi­mental
25 MW MHD powerp.la.nt. W.e a.re
!e.l.li.ng behind. If MHO is to play .iU rc»e
.in aolwing tlle Na.tian'.s energy crisis by
~,-and if the United state~; is to lllAin­tain
its technological le&decship in the
Jield and establish ltsel! u a prlncW&l
world supplier of l4HD liY8tem.i, a.n .ag­_
iXessive national MliD Eievelopment lH"D­.
gz:a.m is needed.
Since 1968, Senator METCALF and I
have been urgi-ng a national program to
-develop MHD power generation. I believe